Silk is a natural polymer produced by a variety of insects and spiders. Silk comprises a filament core protein, silk fibroin, and a glue-like coating consisting of a non-filamentous protein, sericin. Silk has been historically studied for use in the medical field. Silk has been well described in its natural fibrous form and is being studied further for potentially useful secondary forms such as silk gels, sponges, serums, films, powders and composites. Many of these secondary forms can only be created after processing the silk fibers into an aqueous silk solution.
Silk solutions have been generated using a variety of methods with the final solutions having a range of characteristics and varying levels of purity. Silk solutions have not only been used in medical applications, but have also expanded to other areas such as cosmetics and electronics.